CRA indicates that late-filed ETA s. 156 elections will not be accepted if there was negligence or GST/HST in fact was charged

Since 2014, GST/HST nil consideration elections under ETA s. 156 have been required to be filed with CRA rather than just stuffed in a filing cabinet. CRA has now published a Policy on when it will accept late-filed elections, which in addition to other more mechanical or obvious criteria, specifies that the parties must have consistently treated their inter-group supplies as having been made for nil consideration from the requested effective date onwards, the request for the late filing must “provide a clear explanation as to why the specified members have filed the election… late,” and “the parties to the late-filed election...must not have been negligent or careless in complying with the provisions of section 156.”

This last point is reinforced by an example which concludes with the comment:

The request would generally be accepted where the explanation as to why the election was filed late demonstrates that the parties were not negligent or careless in complying with the election provisions.

Similar criteria apply to a late-filed request for revocation of an election.

Neal Armstrong. Summary of P-155 under ETA s. 156(4)(b)(ii).